Nightmares
by Keys Studio
Summary: Fluff, Underswap, one-shot, Papyrus x Sans, inspired by the comic 'Memories of Error.' Papyrus is having a rough night, and when that rough night ends with him screaming himself awake and crying, who else is there to help coax him back into a calm other than Sans, himself?
**Finally, a prompt that has been completed! One out of many, I am telling you now! Also my first ever Fontcest, too! Even if in this prompt, I made them more brotherly rather than incesty. XD**

 **Warning(s): Brotherly worry, nightmares (as the title suggests), Error!Sans (who may or may not be out of character, I have no idea cause I literally know next to** _ **nothing**_ **about him), and… That's it.**

 **I don't own Undertale/Underswap, Toby Fox and whoever came up with the AU does!**

 **[xXx]**

"No… No no no no no…" hushed whispers practically begged passed through chattering teeth. Orange tears cascaded down sharp features while patellas hit the snow covered ground. Phalanges trembled as they brushed against a crying skull. "This isn't real… This is just a bad dream… You aren't dead, you aren't… You can't be… You… You can't…"

"Papy…" rasped the disembodied skull, the usual bright blue lights in its eye sockets dim and blue tears rolling down its cheek bones. "Why didn't you save me…?"

The skull was then pressed against shaking ribs. "I-I tried, bro… I-I didn't know the human was going to attack you…! Had I known-!"

"You're lying," a voice whispered darkly from the skull's mouth. "You stood by and just watched as the human killed me. You just watched me get murdered. You don't care, not really. You never cared. You're just pretending to care. You've seen me die, over and over again… You were always too late even though you _knew_ that it was going to happen."

"W-what…?" Papyrus whispered, his eye sockets going wide. "H-how did you know… a-about that…?"

"I always remember, through all of the resets… I always see you… I always go to cry out to you when I see that the human is about to kill me… But…" His voice became distorted and warped, his skull turning black in Papyrus's arms. Out of shock, the taller skeleton dropped the skull, horrified. "But you already knew that, didn't you?" The scene faded all around them, and the disembodied head glitched a new body into existence. Sans – no, Error, stood, towering over Papyrus some. He was frequent in the skeleton's dreams, so it was only right that he had a name.

"Don't worry though. I'll save our precious little Blueberry should the human decide to go genocidal. Hell, I'll probably kill the brat myself for trying to hurt him. You know, to save you the energy." Leaning over, Error picked up the blue handkerchief from Sans's dust. He held it in his hand for a moment, rubbing his thumb over the slightly coarse fabric. He then clenched it, moving to wrap it around his own neck. "You'll see him again, though. Probably." Error smirked cruelly. "Actually, you probably won't. You can't even protect him, so why should I let you see him again?"

Papyrus felt his entire body lock up at that before he felt his blood boiling in his veins. Growling, he launched himself at the manifestation. "Don't you _dare_ touch him!" he barked, launching bones at the glitching skeleton. His right eye socket began to burn horribly, the flames escaping from it in a volatile manner, crackling rapidly. "Don't _touch_ him! Don't even _come near_ him! He's my brother! He's the only thing I have!" His Gaster Blasters were pulled into existence by his overwhelming rage. They fired, over and over again, but every shot seemed to miss. " _Don't take him away from me_!" His tears cascaded down his scowling face at a rapid pace, more and more Blasters coming in existence.

Error could only laugh, using his strings to latch onto the taller skeleton, along with his pounding Soul. Pulling the strings taught, he ensured that Papyrus would be unable to do a thing. Casually, he strode up to the sneering skeleton. "Oh, but I'm going to, _Papy_ ," he cooed slyly. "He wrapped his free hand around Papyrus's throat, applying pressure with every word he said after. "You see, Blueberry is much too interesting to me. Out of all of the Multiverse, he was the one version of Sans that I simply adored. He was beyond interesting. No other Sans could come close to comparison."

He enjoyed the sight of Papyrus struggling against his hold, against his strings. As a form of reward, as twisted as it was, he loosened his hold around the male's throat. He then leaned in close, whispering darkly into his mastoid, "Not Sans Classic. Not Number 13. None of them could even come close… That's why he _has_ to be mine…"

Red. Red was all Papyrus could see now, fueled by his overwhelming rage. He wanted to lash out, to yell and scream, to send Error into a Hell in which there was no escaping, to do anything so long as his little brother could be safe. When he felt Error reapply force to his throat, though, he knew then that there was absolutely nothing that he could do. His limbs were being stretched to the point of pain, his Magic was becoming more and more unstable, and his vision was starting to blur, black dots dancing across his vision. As he blacked out from the lack of oxygen, all he could hear was Error's distorted laughter and his dark promise.

"Blueberry, _your_ Sans, will be mine."

The instant the darkness took hold, Papyrus shot up in bed screaming out, " _No_!" Panting heavily, he quickly took in his surroundings. He found that he was in his room rather than in the white Void. A nightmare… That was all that it had been…

A nightmare.

Even so…

Papyrus felt himself trembling, tears once again rolling down his cheekbones. It had felt so real. Every action, every single emotion, all of it… It had felt all too real to have been just a simple nightmare. Weakly, he called forth a single Blaster, pulling it close and sobbing against it. The Blaster rested in his lap, closing its glowing eye sockets, allowing its master to seek comfort in its presence.

"Papyrus? Are you okay?" called Sans through the door. His voice only served to make his older brother cry all the more, his body trembling to the point that his bones were beginning to rattle. Hearing him crying, his younger brother opened the door. "I'm… coming in…" He froze at the sight before him. Papyrus was doubled over one of his Gaster Blasters, his skull coated in a thin layer of orange sweat. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't just his skull, but the entirety of his skeletal body. His brother was shaking horribly, and pathetic sobs were coming out of him, as though he was holding back the much louder noises that he had wanted to make.

Wanting to comfort his brother, Sans rushed over to him, wrapping his arms around his trembling figure. "Papyrus, what happened?" the smaller skeleton questioned, worry clearly evident in his voice. When the taller skeleton refused to answer, Sans couldn't help but sigh. "Come on, Papy… I want to know-."

"It… It was a nightmare…" rasped Papyrus, interrupting his brother. He gave him an apologetic sigh, though it was shaky. "A-a really, _really_ bad one…" He hesitated before looking up at Sans. "Don't… make me talk about it… Please…" He was practically begging his brother, not wanting to think about the nightmare any more than he needed to. He wrapped his arms tightly around his younger sibling, burying his face against his shoulder to hide his tears. "Sans… I…" He was silent for a moment before hugging him tighter against him. "I… I love you…" Those had been words rarely spoken between the two of them. They felt horribly foreign in his mouth. He felt the need to say them again. "I love you… so much… I-I know I don't say it often, but…"

Sans traced small circles against his brother's upper thoracic vertebrae. "I love you, too, Papy," he whispered, smiling a little bit to himself. "And I know you don't… It makes it all the more special when you do say it…" He kissed the side of his cranium, starting to pull away. "Why don't I make you something to calm your nerves?"

Papyrus's reaction was a little violent, if not uncalled for. "No!" he exclaimed, pulling his brother back tight against his chest. "D-don't… D-don't leave me… Please, I don't want you to leave me…" He held his brother as tight as he could without hurting him. "I don't want you to leave…"

His younger sibling had a moment of pause before he relaxed and smiled a little bit, looking up at his brother. "Hey… You make it sound like I'm going to leave and never come back…" he told him softly. Then it clicked. That had to have been what the nightmare was about if Papyrus was acting this violently to the idea of him even leaving the room. He hatched a devious little plan in his mind and grinned. "But never fear! For I, the magnificent Sans, your caring little brother, shall never leave your side!" With that, he sat up, placing one hand on the underside of Papyrus's femurs and the other on his upper back. With a grunt, he lifted his older and much bigger brother, letting out a triumphant laugh. "Mweheheheh! I shall carry you downstairs so that we won't be apart from one another!" He started to run out of the room. "What do you say, my dear brother?!"

Clinging onto his younger for dear life, Papyrus stammered out, "I-it's a decent plan, in theory – _watch out for those stairs_!" He saw that his brother seemed to actually _speed up_ at the sight of them, hopping down them three at a time. There had been a moment where Sans was about to fall, and Papyrus's Blaster managed to keep him from doing so, but other than that, there was no slip up of any kind. By the time he was placed safely in a chair at the table in the kitchen, the elder skeleton felt as though he was going to have a heart attack – something that was, you know, kind of impossible. "Promise me that you will _never_ do that again…"

Sans only laughed. "You're looking better already!" he beamed, going about making his brother some tea with honey mixed in. Such a thing was sure to relax his brother, right? Right.

With his Blaster resting now in his lap, Papyrus placed a gentle hand on its head, watching as his younger brother ran about to and fro, making him tea. A weak smile pulled at his mouth. "I feel a bit better. Thank you, Sans…" He bowed his head a little, looking at his Blaster, whom of which looked back. _Nobody will hurt you for as long as I'm alive… I promise… And nobody is going to take you away from me, either… Even if I have to die trying…_ he thought to himself.

 **[xXx]**

 **Read and review please!**

 **~Calibri**


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